Hey, how are you guys doing? My name is WSM and I dream of making comics. I have been criticized for this dream but I've stuck to it. While my peers idolized athletes and actors, I worshipped Frank Miller (this was before The Spirit) and Grant Morrison. And over the years I've...uh...ok, what I'm getting at is that I had plans to make a GSG fancomic.The comic was called "Gunslinger Girl: Reloaded". It stars the three nameless generation 2 cyborgs and their handlers (who I made-up). Of course, the fancomic also heavily featured familiar GSG characters like Petra, Triela, Jose, Jean, etc.

I wrote the script for the first four chapters and I wrote them in a very similar style to the original manga. Backstories were kept to a minimal and it focused more on the moral and ethical questions raised by the use of child soldiers. But then things started to fall apart. The locations become way too exotic, the action was unrealistic, and plotlines went nowhere. When I realized that I wrote a drug-fueled hallucinogenic sequence set in Egypt, I realized that I should just cut my loses and give-up on this comic. But since OCs are a large part of the GSG fan community, I decided to show you guys a little bit of my lost opus.

With these pics, they're sketches. I took my hand-held camera and shot off some pictures which is why the quality is so poor. I also didn't make a lot of concept art for the girls because I figured I could just use the manga.

So, here are the three main handers and their cyborgs. But first I should point out that the cyborgs' names are from Kiskaloo so give him credit.

Marco Giordano and Giada

I could never get him to look right in my drawings. Marco and Giada were probably the most well-adjusted fratello. I like to describe their relationship as "employer-employee" although it was more "father-daughter". They even had nicknames for each other. Giada would habitually refer to Marco as "Boss" and Marco would call Giada "Blondie", "Bruiser", and "Pumpkin" among others.Marco himself was probably the least developed or the six central characters. He was almost too perfect. He was friendly, tough, polite, and smart. He is also one of, if not the only, handler who is married with kids (two sons).Giada was kind of a trouble maker. She was nice and professional when she needed to be but she could be pretty mischievous. One plot-point involved her bullying Henrietta (as a joke) and Jose yelling at Marco for it.And he's some more developement pictures of Marco...

There's also...

Alfeo Borelli and Ilaria

The "Jean and Rico" of this story. Alfeo is extremely disturbed by the fact that the government is taking these little girls and turning them into weapons. Because of that disgust, he resents Ilaria. He isn't mean to her, he just doesn't like interacting with her unless he has to.Alfeo is the only one of the six characters who past is explored in anyway. It is revealed in the first few pages of script that he served in the military (as a pilot), in EMS (emergancy medical services), and in the AISI (kind of like the Italian CIA). He also has a strained relationship with his daughter and grandchildren. He is also, by far, the oldest handler but despite his age, he's in great shape. The best way to describe him is "grouchy old man".Or "grouchy old man with a shotgun"Ilaria was, like Rico, a more cheerful cyborg. Although, she was a lot (A LOT) more compassionate than Rico. Upon being activated, the first thing Alfeo said to her was "your hair: it's too long. First thing we're gonna do is get you a haircut." And she turns-out liking her new hairstyle or more like, she makes the best of it. She cares deeply for Alfeo despite his coldness towards her. In the story, Marco remarks how she was probably the friendliest cyborg to which Alfeo responed "yeah, sure".One thing I liked about these two is that, at the end of the story, you would expect Alfeo to realize how great a partner Ilaria is and the two find a new respect for each other...but no. In the end, even after witnessing the full level of humanity the cyborgs can offer, he's still a grumpy old man.

Last there's...

Liam Verlaine and Alba

I'm not sure how I would describe their relationship. They both want to understand and like each other but their personalities prevent it.Liam is a douche. He's the young, cocky jerk of the group. He acts like he's a fun guy and he thinks everyone likes him but no, he's a douche. Although, his douchey-ness comes from a tough childhood and his feelings of inadequacy and inferiority.Alba is also hard to understand. She acts stoic half the time and then she's a smart-ass the other half of the time. She's kind of like the "deadpan snarker" of the comic. She's also the most down-to-earth of the main characters and probably the only one who can take a step back and look at the big picture and just how insane their job is.The main storyline with this fratello begins when the girls are being shown how to fight hand-to-hand. Liam tries to spare with Alba but his douchebaggery gets in the way and he begins to belittle her. She snaps and beats the crap out of him. Both characters get depressed after they realize how bad their relationship is.

So, like I said, I gave-up on this comic after I realized that the comic was straining to far away from the source material. Fancomics can be tricky. They're like movie sequels. You could follow the same formula as the original, not bringing anything new to the table, pretty much making a crappy version of the original. Or you could take a chance and try something new and risk alienating fans of the original.After, this project was scrapped, I recycled characters and concepts into two new comics (which I later gave-up on). The first was a completely original sci-fi comic called "The Indestructable Man". The second was another GSG comic about Lauro and his history with Elsa leading to his death.

Excellent facial expression! The first pic you posted Marco Giordano and also Liam Verlaine stood out to me. (the others were great too, don't get me wrong)That's what I always enjoy most in comics, the face makes the person come alive to me..*ahem* By the way, grrrreat idea for a GSG fan comic: 'Lauro and his history...'

tremec6speed

Forum Posts : 1973

Fan of : Lauro and Olga!

Original Characters : Vinson/Helen/Salvatore + Gunther/Ayden. Baddies are a small group of 'techno-anarchists'

Comments : I hope to include a short illustrated fanfic story of both Mr. Yutaka Aida's characters as well as some I've come up with.

I think you're doing the world a disservice by scrapping your work. The hints you've revealed caught my attention from the get-go. I'm sure others here would think the same; why don't you let us be the judge of its merits? Don't be so hard on yourself. You might have an instant hit on your hands and not even know it.

@Tremec6speed Facial expressions are very important to me. In fact, that's really my favorite thing about the original GSG comic: you can tell what the character is thinking just by looking at their face. That, in my opinion, is the true genius of Yu Aida.Plus, I thought Yu's biggest mistake was not looking deeper into the Elsa and Lauro characters.

@Natchsider I've tried writing new scripts but lately I've been working on comedy and kung fu comics so my mindset isn't really right for GSG (at least not at the moment).

Also, I loved Morrison's All-Star Superman and The Invisibles changed my life. His early stuff like Gideon Stargrave is also pretty awesome as was his recent stuff like Batman.

Honestly, I never read Arkham Asylum. I did start reading it before but the artwork really turned me off of it. And I know I'm the only person who feels that way but I'm very picky when it comes to comic art. I almost gave up of The Invisibles after issue 1 because of the art.

Guess we're divided on that subject, man. I'm one of those people who's willing to overlook substandard art if the story is good. Case in point - a good part of Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

Dave McKean's art, however, I consider amazing. I love his unique blend of paint, photography and collages. Therefore, Arkham Asylum I regard as an artistic and literary tour de force. And I think that the art for The Invisibles is by and large average to above average, although by no means fantastic.

What I won't ever do, though, is turn a blind eye to poor storytelling if the art is gorgeous. Which is why I don't read most manga titles.

So you think good writing can make up for bad art but good art cant make up for bad writing? I think the two are completely equal, it simply wouldn't be a comic without one or the other.As far as Arkham Asylum goes, I just don't like realistic looking comic book art. Having a big white speach bubble ontop of a photograph-like painting just looks wrong to me. That's why I didn't like Kingdom Come at first. Of course, you can have good art without being too realistic like Frank Quitely and Jim Lee among others. Hell, sometimes bad art can add to the story's mood (like Frank Miller's blocky, murky and angular art). As far as Sandman goes, I think the sometimes lackluster art adds to the indie-comic/fantasy feel to it.

Yup, that's what I believe. I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree on it.

Dave's stuff is more surreal than realistic, to be honest. But yeah, I can see why you might be put off by the juxtaposition of white speech bubbles over painted art. In actual fact, however, not every character in that story had white speech bubbles. Bats and most of the supervillains each had subdued (rarely white) speech bubbles and even unique, nonstandard fonts. I personally love that effect where each comic character's speech has a unique look to it. Todd Klein rocks.

Jim Lee and Frank Quitely strike the best balance between cartoonish and realistic, yes - I prefer the latter's work to the former's. As for Miller, I think his pencils are great, but Lynn Varley ruins everything with those godawful pastel hues. Leave his stuff in black and white, please. It's like Kouta Hirano's work on Hellsing; all that fantastic detail in his linework would be utterly lost if it were presented in glorious technicolor. You have a point there with Sandman.

Having drawn The Alphas and GsG:Rachel (which is part of my arts page and the GsG Golden Cyborg Awards...), both art and text adds to the overall content. They can only supplement each other. Though the art and text can stand up on their own, together they give power to the meaning of the message being delivered.

Bad art? I dont think there is any bad art, just bad content in art. In short, being able to create is more powerful than being able to stand, look at it and say one can do better. Personally, when I run against those types of people, I challenge them to actually do it.